Deforestation in Aysén

[feargle]

Perhaps its just coincidence that the Carretera Austral extension was executed by the Chilean Army engineers, during a time of heightened tensions with Argentina, but I would argue that the colonization of this inhospitable region owes more to geopolitical concerns that to any real attempt to develop it.

Looking further back, I recall reading that formal colonization was only promoted by Chile in the 1920s, in an attempt to curb Argentinian influence in the area. Before then, Chilean state presence was barely perceptible, as opposed to stronger Argentinean influences, at a time when that country was wealthy while Chile languished in its post-WW1 poverty.

One of the missions of the region’s first Intendente was to reinforce the “Chileanization” of the region, to counter Argentina:
(Original here)

"..After almost 30 years of land concessions, when the newly appointed Intendente, Luis Marchant, a colonel of the Carabineros, arrived in the winter of 1928, he was confronted in Puerto Aysén by a “miserable, rustic pier in a deplorable state…By mandate of President Ibáñez, Marchant’s mission was to create the foundations of a system of domination that would strengthen Chilean identity in Aysén.”

"..The process is carefully chronicled by the diplomat and writer Víctor Domingo Silva, then Chilean consul in Bariloche and Chubut, who points out in The Tempest Is Coming (1936) the differences and imbalances between the Chileanization and Argentinization processes of Patagonia, arguing that this material and symbolic impetus of the Argentines would make the national population of the border areas very vulnerable. Giving strength to the argument that border populations do not respond to national identities, or that they are neither Argentine nor Chilean, and that they routinely circulate from one side of the low mountain range to the other through a commercial, labor, and family network of political and blood ties…there is a "culpable neglect by our administration, which has been, gradually but persistently fueling and strengthening the Argentinization of these regions"

Regarding the “Colonization” efforts, even early on, these had led to widespread devastation, and the following quote also includes several acid comments on the Region’s suitability for human development.

“…At the same time, an ecocide took place. In 1933, Latcham noted that the forests were almost impenetrable, a result of swamps and reedbeds, so “clearing” was used to introduce more livestock, destroying “enormous tracts of forest”, in what would become — between 1920 and 1940 — “a legalized burnoff”. Everything was precarious: a lack of good ports, roads, animal transport, and poor communications. Cold, rain (2 to 4 m3 annually), food shortages (legumes, fruits, and vegetables), dependence on Argentinean stores for everyday needs, and a permanent lack of medicine and clothing prevailed. The average temperature of 12°C recorded in January in southern Aysén explained and sanctioned "the region’s weak aptitude” for agriculture.

This is what Google had to say:

[Findes]

@feargle

Perhaps its just coincidence that the Carretera Austral extension was executed by the Chilean Army engineers,

Rubbish. Absolute rubbish.

The CMT — the Cuerpo Militar del Trabajo – is an alternative to armed forces service. They are essentially a civil engineering and construction organization. I’ve had many years of contact with them in the course of their work in the remote parts of Tierra del Fuego and southern Patagonia. They’re the road builders down here. In fact the only uniforms I’ve seen at CMT projects would be on their management. They carry no weapons and have no “armed” role. But because of the “militar” part of their name, they are regularly insulted by those with no knowledge of their actual performance in the country, in trying to associate the CMT with past missteps of the national armed forces.

Your comment is disturbing and disappointing.

[feargle]

I don’t pretend to be omniscient, but my error (if error it was) is only one single sentence in quite a lengthy piece. Sorry you find it disturbing.

The rest of what I wrote regarding the colonization and consequent deforestation of Aysen supports what I said earlier, ie put people into a remote, unspoiled area and they will mess it up. Not just Chileans either.

I still maintain that the area was colonized to reinforce Chilean sovereignty in that area. As you know, to this day, relations with our Argentinean neighbours are quite “sensitive”.

Finally, a couple of Wkipedia exerpts: (Google’s AI-assisted search is very good these days)

In order to strengthen the Chilean presence in these isolated territories and ensure the land connection to the rest of the country, the government planned the construction of this road, which was executed by the Chilean Army’s Engineering Command. More than 10,000 soldiers worked on its construction.

and:

The engineering corps of the Chilean Army used thousands of conscripts from 1975 to 1985 to build the road.[4] Dictator Augusto Pinochet is said to have made annual visits well into the 1990s to follow the progress of the road

[tombrad2]

Concern about depopulated areas — of which there are many in Chile — has been a constant throughout the country’s history. It’s not just a matter for the military but for all governments, especially in the far north and south.

For example, the depopulation of the Atacama Desert led to a chain of conflicts that ended in the War of the Pacific with Peru and Bolivia. With Argentina, we’ve had deadly border disputes, such as in 1965 when Lieutenant Hernán Merino was shot by an Argentine Gendarmerie patrol. In the 1980s, we were also just days away from going to war with Argentina due to border disputes.

The Carretera Austral was ordered by Pinochet and built by the Military Work Corps — who construct roads throughout Chile on behalf of the state — because Chile was effectively split in two before that, and the only way to reach the south by land was through Argentina. The sea route through the channels is very dangerous.

As for deforestation, it’s a rather ‘woke’ complaint from recent years, mostly pushed by NGOs. Some native flora always disappears around human settlements, but in that area, it’s minimal.

There’s also the massive Pumalín reserve donated by Douglas Tompkins. In my opinion, environmentalists did enormous harm to the region and to the entire country with the ‘Patagonia Without Dams’ campaign — that was a tremendous mistake, in my view

[Findes]

@tombrad2

In the 1980s, we were also just days away from going to war with Argentina due to border disputes.

I was in both Chile and Argentina during the 1970s. The crises that I remember most in that respect were in December of 1978 with the Beagle Channel matter, when the Argentine fleet went looking for the Chilean fleet, got lost in a storm, got cold feet, and elected to let the Vatican’s representative Samoré talk them into a provisional peace settlement. Provisional, because Argentina went back on its word in that most Argentine of manners, in 1982, when it planned to invade Chile after cleaning up its Falklands occupation. Chile’s assistance to the UK in that war was a fine example of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”

And that’s the reason we still have hot minefields down here in Magallanes, years after Chile promised to comply with the international convention to remove APERS mines.

–

Elsewhere, Bradanovic is quite right in asserting that the enviro types, and that includes Tompkins, did a great deal of harm to the country, and particularly Aysén.

---

When discussing “deforestation” it should be remembered that internationally, the clearing of land to develop productive land use was until recently a completely standard and acceptable practice and thus the context must be understood. No one seems to remember the massive clearings in Los Lagos, Los Ríos, and other parts of the southern regions, including that done (and required) by the then-new German colonists, while endlessly whimpering about Aysén.

[feargle]

@Findes

When discussing “deforestation” it should be remembered that internationally, the clearing of land to develop productive land use was until recently a completely standard and acceptable practice

Not a good practice though. 500 years ago, in my home country, the construction of the Great Michael “took all the woods of Fife”, which to this day is largely treeless. The UK’s “rural” landscape is now almost completely man-made, a result of centuries of forest-felling.

Apologies for that article’s style

[Findes]

@feargle

Not a good practice though.

If early proto-civilisations were to follow the hypocritical treatments of Tompkins (he carved out airfields for himself and prevented the construction of roads for the less monied) then people would still be living in cold caves, forbidden to touch the trees or catch a fish or plant a seed, without a hope to harness the stream waters to foment the least forms of development.

We should more objectively, and with historical accuracy, look upon the cleared areas, the evolution of agriculture, and the rejection of Tompkinism, as the means by which human civilisation was able to reach beyond its primordial origins.

[feargle]

@Findes

We should more objectively, and with historical accuracy, look upon the cleared areas, the evolution of agriculture, and the rejection of Tompkinism, as the means by which human civilisation was able to reach beyond its primordial origins.

That was all very well even 100 years ago, when the world population didn’t impose such a load on the planet, and when technology didn’t afford the opportunities for exploitation that are now available.

I’m not a kneejerk greenie, and don’t subscribe to the the Climate Change BS currently going round, but:
.
The imminent exploitation of Antarctica, or the presence of vast Chinese fishing fleets that scoop up everything in their paths are just two of many examples of humanities’ latest forays into the natural world.
And the collateral damage caused by these activities cannot be excused by the omelette-eggs argument.’

Its the modern “tragedy of the commons”, the common now being the whole planet.

[Findes]

@feargle

.
The imminent exploitation of Antarctica,

What sort of “imminent exploitation of Antarctica” are you referring to?

Under the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty System you can’t even leave a frozen turd in the region, let alone “exploit” anything.

Edit: I was told today that some of my Antarctica work for Chile has been acknowledged in “Antarctica and the Humanities,” edited by Roberts Peder, Lize-Marié van der Watt, Adrian Howkins

[feargle]

Exploitation comes in many forms.

[Findes]

@feargle

Exploitation comes in many forms.

Unfortunately, the modern politically correct connotation of exploitation is entirely negative. In its earlier iterations, forgotten by modern exploiters, exploitation simply means using something. You know, what human beings do to allow them to have forums.

Thus we have to look at the image and ask, what, exactly, is the harm? How enduring is that harm, and what is it balanced against?

In this specific propaganda case, the image appears to be outside the Antarctic circle, probably in the South Shetlands, only “politically” considered to be Antarctica, while scientifically (at least when some approaches to science were less governed by political influence) this region is considered sub-Antarctic. We might go so far as to say these places are falsely included in consideration as “Antarctica.”

The members of the organisations belonging to the Antarctic Treaty System have established rather rigorous regulations regarding tourism in the region. Many truly sensitive areas are simply off limits to tourism, and our (Chilean) representatives have been promoting additional restricted sections, known as Antarctic Specially Protected Areas where tourist visits are not permitted by Treaty members.

[feargle]

It looks as if we will have to agree to disagree - about everything!

[eeuunikkeiexpat]

Thanks all for the muy informative discussions. Please do not hold back, freedom of speech is fundamental in these times of caos, misinformation and disinformation.

As admin of this forum, I again emphasize that we fully support free speech even if we don’t agree with another’s POV.

And kudos again to the founder and tech admin of this forum.

[Findes]

@eeuunikkeiexpat

And kudos again to the founder and tech admin of this forum.

Somewhere in the tech admin of this forum was a decision that will keep the latest version of my browser from being allowed to play on the forum

[Findes]

To get the perspective of a respected Chilean historian on the history and development of Aysén, comparatively free of the contemporary greenie silliness, by someone with intimate knowledge of the region, I might suggest Dr. Martinic’s work (in Spanish - I don’t know if it’s available in gringo. And Martinic is hard to translate accurately).

Punta Arenas is a bit of a pago chico and I used to run into Martinic on the street from time to time.

Wikipedia has a badly translated bio on Dr Martinic.

Mateo Martinić Beroš (born 20 October 1931) is a Chilean historian, politician and lawyer of Croatian descent. He has primarily dealt with the history of the Magallanes Region. He entered the University of Chile in 1953 studying briefly pedagogy before moving on to study law and then continued his law studies in the Catholic University of Chile. He finally became a lawyer in 1983. From 1964 to 1970 he served as [intendente] of Magallanes Region. He received the National History Award in 2000. Together with botanist Edmundo Pisano Martnic was among the founding members of Instituto de la Patagonia which in 1985 became integrated into the University of Magallanes .

The work is legitimately available online - 69MB download

De la Trapananda al Aysén: una mirada reflexiva sobre el acontecer de la...

Portion of a review of the book in Scielo, translated:

“…The third stage in this section is the one between 1970 and 2003, a broad and feverish period in the history of the country and of the region in particular. This was characterized by the repeated rotation of intendentes, but according to the author, it was not as evident as in previous years, thanks to the progress of the modernizing reforms of the Frei senior government. Without touching on “sensitive” issues for the period we are referring to, the author emphasizes the economic and connectivity aspect, highlighting the inauguration of the Carretera Austral as a true backbone of the region’s growth under the Pinochet government. The same is done in the description of the Concertación governments in terms of economic support for regional development, showing that the contribution of road infrastructure was proportionally greater than that of its sister regions at the other extremes of the country (p. 381). As in the fourth part, the author continues with an analysis of economic development through the main areas of production. He concludes with an interesting analysis of the pathological border issue with Argentina, particularly regarding the Laguna del Desierto…”